We still get mail for two people who used to live at the place we brought 3 years later.

We just do what we have always done, goes into a pile with "Return to sender, no longer at this address" written on them and once in a while we take them all down and shove them into the post box.

We have moved in the past and found the redirection service offered by NZ Post doesnt always catch everything, and have been grateful to those who send it on.

Shame on all of you who just bin it, or open it. You go on about others being too lazy to setup re-directs, yet you are too lazy to write Return to Sender and drop it in a post box or into your work's outgoing mail?

geek4me: When you buy a new home or rental property does the law require you to redirect mail received for earlier owners/tenants?

I hardly send snail mail these days but receive mail for others who lived at my address recently or even several years ago. I don't mind forwarding on the odd letter saying "Not at this address" but when there is mail almost every day what must one do with it all?

When the previous tenants have left no forwarding address, perhaps because they want their privacy, can I bin it, must I hang on to it for ever, or am obliged to redirect it either to the letting agency that rented out the property, or write "No forwarding address" or "Owner no longer at this address - Return Sender" or some such and make a unplanned trip to a Post Box to send it on.

If I have to forward/redirect mail, how many weeks, months, or years am I required by law (if any) to do this? Do I need to forward it within a fixed number of days of receiving it or perhaps once a month?

Others must have this hassle too. I presume it would be illegal to open it even if there is no return address on the outside of the letter and perhaps also illegal just to throw it away.

Dustbin or just return to sender. Dont think there are any rules around it.

That is bad advice, DO NOT THROW IT AWAY. My suggestion is to just take it into NZ post periodically to send to the right address. Or contact the old person and ask them to get their details updated.Or just put put return to sender. Takes 2 seconds to do.

jaymz: We still get mail for two people who used to live at the place we brought 3 years later.

We just do what we have always done, goes into a pile with "Return to sender, no longer at this address" written on them and once in a while we take them all down and shove them into the post box.

We have moved in the past and found the redirection service offered by NZ Post doesnt always catch everything, and have been grateful to those who send it on.

Shame on all of you who just bin it, or open it. You go on about others being too lazy to setup re-directs, yet you are too lazy to write Return to Sender and drop it in a post box or into your work's outgoing mail?

Well said.

And you're right - NZ Post re-directions don't catch everything. When we shift was paid to continue the redirection for a year, yet once a month there would still be something that would make it through. We were grateful that the new owner forwarded items on to us. We even wrote to him and told him that and sent him a Christmas Card.

geek4me: When you buy a new home or rental property does the law require you to redirect mail received for earlier owners/tenants?

I hardly send snail mail these days but receive mail for others who lived at my address recently or even several years ago. I don't mind forwarding on the odd letter saying "Not at this address" but when there is mail almost every day what must one do with it all?

When the previous tenants have left no forwarding address, perhaps because they want their privacy, can I bin it, must I hang on to it for ever, or am obliged to redirect it either to the letting agency that rented out the property, or write "No forwarding address" or "Owner no longer at this address - Return Sender" or some such and make a unplanned trip to a Post Box to send it on.

If I have to forward/redirect mail, how many weeks, months, or years am I required by law (if any) to do this? Do I need to forward it within a fixed number of days of receiving it or perhaps once a month?

Others must have this hassle too. I presume it would be illegal to open it even if there is no return address on the outside of the letter and perhaps also illegal just to throw it away.

Dustbin or just return to sender. Dont think there are any rules around it.

It's not a good idea to doll out advice when you don't know what the rules are.

geek4me: When you buy a new home or rental property does the law require you to redirect mail received for earlier owners/tenants?

I hardly send snail mail these days but receive mail for others who lived at my address recently or even several years ago. I don't mind forwarding on the odd letter saying "Not at this address" but when there is mail almost every day what must one do with it all?

When the previous tenants have left no forwarding address, perhaps because they want their privacy, can I bin it, must I hang on to it for ever, or am obliged to redirect it either to the letting agency that rented out the property, or write "No forwarding address" or "Owner no longer at this address - Return Sender" or some such and make a unplanned trip to a Post Box to send it on.

If I have to forward/redirect mail, how many weeks, months, or years am I required by law (if any) to do this? Do I need to forward it within a fixed number of days of receiving it or perhaps once a month?

Others must have this hassle too. I presume it would be illegal to open it even if there is no return address on the outside of the letter and perhaps also illegal just to throw it away.

Dustbin or just return to sender. Dont think there are any rules around it.

It's not a good idea to doll out advice when you don't know what the rules are.

Yes not a good idea, as people can be responsible for any advice they give.

mattwnz: That is bad advice, DO NOT THROW IT AWAY. My suggestion is to just take it into NZ post periodically to send to the right address. Or contact the old person and ask them to get their details updated.Or just put put return to sender. Takes 2 seconds to do.

If we had a rural system where the mail got collected from the same mailbox it got delivered to, then fine - but a special trip to the post office, or at least the post box 3 blocks away after bringing the mail from home into the office, takes somewhat more than 2 seconds. The nearest post box to home is about 1.5Km away in the wrong direction.

As I've said before, it's not a big deal, just an unnecessary inconvenience, especially when it's caused simply by the previous people not caring to sort it out themselves.

keewee01: And defnz, if you said you would forward it, then you should forward it otherwise you're being dishonest! At the very least you should collect it and give it to the landlord.

I agree, defnz should have done what he said he would. As for giving it to the landlord, well, we were at a flat and the landlord and his ex wife used to own it. We stored some mail for the ex wife, gave it to the landlord and he opened and read it. Well, we didn't store it so that he could read it, we expected him to pass it on (or at least, not open it and read it in front of us).

When we left, we did leave a note there for them to forward the mail on to us, but, we didn't get any. To be fair, we have a po box, so, there was only 2 items of mail (payslip and something else) that went to that house and we had already asked them to change address, but, the payslip people didn't change the address.

keewee01: And defnz, if you said you would forward it, then you should forward it otherwise you're being dishonest! At the very least you should collect it and give it to the landlord.

It wasn't the previous tenant asking me, it was the landlord passing a note from previous tenant

[sarcasm] Oh, that's OK then - that definitely gets you out of doing what you told the landlord you would do![/sarcasm]

I know it was in effect the landlord asking you on behalf of the previous tenants. You still told the landlord you would do it - if you had no intention of doing so you should just have said No! That then puts it back to the landlord to take care of it. At the moment you are responsible for forwarding on the mail because you agreed to it with the landlord (who was acting on behalf of the previous tenants).

Try putting yourself in the shoes of the previous tenants - actually think about it.